The National Safety Council (NSC) released a report in 2014 stating that lighting, both interior and exterior, helps to deter thieves. Thieves are 3 times more likely to target a house without exterior lighting and 7 times more likely to target a house without either exterior or interior lights currently on at night. So if you are a seasonal resident, timers are your best friend for those summer months when you are gone.
Setting up a schedule of lighting outside is a standard thing for people to do. You can also set up interior lights on timers as well. You can do this with smart technologies or with simple timers. Setting up timers on various lamps to go on in the evening and off at bed time will give the illusion year around that your house is full of people and not a good target for thieves.
A good alarm system is a great step to protect your home but an even better step is to make the thief avoid your house because it does not look like an easy target. Using timers and lights you can be home, all the time, all year long . . . or at least that is what the thief will see and that means your house will be 7 times safer than if you leave it dark. We’re all for good alarm systems, but even if you have a really good one that gets the cops there in just a few minutes, that still leaves the potential for your house to be broken into. Somewhere a window or door could be broken, and they would have that few minutes to take whatever they could lay their hands on. We’d rather keep your house safe before a break-in by making sure you are always home to anyone watching.
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